Familiar faces make up Vermont ballot

STATE STATS

Voter makeup: As of July 2024, Vermont’s secretary of state reported 498,853 registered voters. The state does not require voters to register with any political party. Additionally, voter registration isn’t organized by county or by district but is instead delegated to 10 towns that serve as regional clerks. Of those, the largest, Burlington, had 34,755 registered voters during the 2022 midterms with 70.8 percent participation.

Voting: First-time voters in Vermont may register to vote with a valid photo ID, a current utility bill, a current bank statement, or another government document. Voters can register at any time up to or on Election Day, including at polling sites. The state provides absentee ballots no later than 45 days ahead of primaries and general elections. Anyone may request an absentee ballot and may obtain a ballot on behalf of someone else.

PRESIDENTIAL

In the 2020 presidential election, President Joe Biden, 81, carried the state with 65.5 percent of the vote, beating out President Donald Trump’s 30.4 percent support among voters. In this year’s presidential primaries, Vermont was the only state that former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley won. She garnered 49.8 percent of the vote, narrowly winning over Trump’s 45.6 percent. (Haley also won Washington, D.C.) Biden comfortably won Vermont’s overwhelming support with 85 percent in the Democratic primary. Vermont has just three Electoral College votes, placing it in a seven-way tie for the fewest in the country.

GUBERNATORIAL

Vermont will vote for governor this November with primaries taking place on Aug. 13.

Vermont’s current Republican Gov. Phil Scott, 65, last won reelection in 2022 with an overwhelming 71.3 percent of the vote. Scott has led the state as its governor since 2017. Prior to that, he served Vermont as its lieutenant governor from 2011 to 2017. Before assuming office, Scott was the co-owner of DuBois Construction. He sold his stake in the company after his election.

Esther Charlestin and Peter Duval are running to unseat Scott. Charlestin, a former Middlebury Union Middle School administrator and the co-chairwoman of Vermont’s Commission on Women, has run for one other public office and was elected to the Town of Middlebury selectboard, or local governing body, in 2021. She has master’s degrees in corporate communications and teaching, both from Sacred Heart University. Duval has a master’s in computer science from the University of Vermont and is the founding president of the Vermont Bicycle and Pedestrian Coalition. Duval has framed his campaign primarily as an environment-focused effort.

SENATE

Vermont has one senate seat up for consideration in 2024. Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders will seek a fourth term this November. Sanders, 82, a longtime political figure in Vermont, first came to the U.S. Senate in 2007 and before that represented the state for 16 years in the House. Sanders caucuses with Democrats but is the longest-serving independent member of Congress in American history, according to his website. Sanders rose to national prominence for his strong stances on issues such as the environment and his democratic-socialist views. He became a mainstay in the Democratic Party after presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020. Sanders last secured reelection to the Senate with a commanding 67.4 percent victory over Republican challenger Lawrence Zupan.

State Sen. Gerald Malloy, 62, has a background of military service, having graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1984 and served in the U.S. Army from 1980 to 2006. Since then, Malloy has worked with a number of government contractors, including Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Last year, Malloy ran to fill the seat of longtime Sen. Patrick Leahy when he retired at the end of his term in 2023. Malloy lost that contest to then–Rep. Peter Welch, with Welch taking 68.5 percent of the votes to Malloy’s 28 percent.

U.S. HOUSE

Vermont has one congressional district, currently occupied by Democratic Rep. Becca Balint, 56. She was elected in 2022, beating Republican candidate Liam Madden by a 34.8 percentage point margin. Before her time in congress, Balint, who is in a same-sex marriage, worked as an educator at a Windham County middle school for 14 years before holding office in Vermont’s state Senate from 2015 to 2023.

Her Republican challenger, Mark Coester, 51, is a small business owner who says he understands the priorities of everyday workers. He has worked as a logger and a sugar maker. Although he’s running as a Republican, Coester has competed in two other races as an independent. In 2022, he ran to replace Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., in the U.S. Senate, taking home just 0.4 percent of the vote. Earlier in 2022, Coester ran as an independent for state senator, winning just over 3.2 percent of ballots cast.

Independent candidate Adam Ortiz joins Balint and Coester on the ballot. Ortiz served in the U.S. Army National Guard from 2006 to 2012. He ran for the state House of Representatives in 2022, also as an independent. In that election he garnered just 1.2 percent of the vote.

SECRETARY OF STATE

Incumbent Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas will run for reelection this November. She has filled the role since 2023. Before becoming secretary of state, Copeland Hanzas, a Democrat, served in the Vermont General Assembly for about 11 years. She worked on committees dealing with healthcare and government operations, and she chaired the Committee on House Government Operations.

In addition to challenging Copeland Hanzas for the secretary of state role, H. Brooke Paige will also seek to become Vermont’s state auditor and attorney general. (Vermont candidates may run for more than one office in primary elections but may only select one in a general election) According to the Vermont secretary of state website, Paige has run in 23 separate primary and general elections. He has run for Vermont Secretary of State three times, not including his current campaign efforts. He first ran to represent Vermont in the U.S. Senate in 2012, when he lost a Republican primary to John MacGovern and garnered 23.8 percent of the vote. Paige holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Delaware.

Dig deeper: Read how Biden and Trump have attempted to win over Nikki Haley supporters in states like Vermont. 

Visit the WORLD Election Center 2024 to follow our state-by-state coverage between now and November.